Congrats to Xinyan and Qingsheng for their coauthored paper “Interlayer Electronic Decoupling Unlocks Giant Birefringence in π-Conjugated Metal-Organic Frameworks” being accepted by Advanced Materials.
Organic π-conjugated molecules are intrinsically anisotropic systems potential for birefringent materials design. Yet their cofacial stacking in the bulk crystals delocalizes electrons and largely kills the optical anisotropy.
We collaborated with Prof. Jinhu Dou from Peking university in designing an anion-induced coordination competition strategy (AICCS) to disrupt the dense stacking of conjugated molecules within metal-organic frameworks, liberate the latent polarizability of the π-system, and achieve record-high birefringence.
Our group performed theoretical calculations to provide mechanistic understanding on how optical anisotropy could be released in π-Conjugated MOF crystals.
